One of my favorite nail art tools is a reused cottage cheese or 32oz yogurt container lid. The lids are not accepted by my town's recycling program, so they would end up in a landfill if not reused. They are #2 recyclable, so if I need to use a bit of nail polish remover, the plastic remains intact. I very seldom need to use nail polish remover on the plastic though because it is quite easy to peel dry polish off the plastic.
Reusing these lids is earth friendly in a couple of ways. First, as I mentioned, the lids end up in a landfill if not reused. Secondly, I don't need to paint single use nail art wheels for every swatch I do (I only use the nail art wheel for swatches shared on this blog). I also can easily test out color combinations for nail art without creating a full manicure that might have the wrong shade of base color. I also use a lid under my stamping plates and it dramatically cuts down on post-manicure cleanup.
You can see on my very messy swatching lid that I compared polishes (OPI Designer de Better vs. Sonia Kashuk Golden Ticket) that really don't look much alike, checked polishes for possible layering (Nfu Oh 51 and Max Factor Fantasy Fire over several polishes), and scraped excess nail polish off a stamping plate. You can also see how I created a dry "water" marble on a cottage cheese lid in this post.
In other Earth Day news, I ran in the Envirun 5k race yesterday. It was a cold, rainy morning on Goat Island in Niagara Falls, NY. Even on such a dreary day, I couldn't help but being struck by how amazing it is there. I ran by the rushing white waters of the Niagara River and caught glimpses of the Horseshoe Falls near the end of the race. Living so close to one of the wonders of the world for so much of my life, I sometimes take the beauty of Niagara Falls for granted. I think it is important to remind myself of what I'm trying to preserve on all those days that I don't allow myself the convenience of single serving foods, or I air dry my hair, or sit in my house during the winter while wrapped up in two sweaters, a blanket, and wearing wool socks on my feet.
Do you have any Earth Day tips to share? Do you find this tip useful? Runners, do you have any tips for me as I begin training for a 10k race this summer?
Have a good day.
~Alexis
